The Rope Swing

The Rope Swing: A Memoir

by Candace Kearns Read

The Rope Swing is the story of one woman’s attempt to save her mother from herself, and how she ultimately finds compassionate detachment instead. Written for anyone who grew up in a dysfunctional family and now has to take care of their aging parents, Candace Kearns Read’s memoir tells the story of her days as a neurotic Hollywood screenwriter, script reader, and production assistant trying to save her drug-addicted mother from losing her house, her mind and her life, all the while struggling to preserve her own relationships, career, and sanity. The book is in the process of being printed and will be out by mid-August.

An Amazon.com link will appear here soon.

Preorder your copy from Eagle Wings Press here:

A Kindle version will option will also appear here soon.

PRAISE FOR THE ROPE SWING:

“Candace Kearns Read writes with the propulsive energy of someone who knows that saving your life isn’t a one time thing, but ongoing work, destined to happen again and again. THE ROPE SWING is the story of trying to keep a heart open against all the forces that would try to shut it down. But the real wonder is all the light on the page, “so awake and warmed by inner fires.”

–Paul Lisicky, author of The Narrow Door (Graywolf Press, 2016).

“Honest, compassionate, and full of deep, vivid, observation, Candace Kearns Read’s The Rope Swing lays bare the ripple effects of growing up with emotional and financial uncertainty, and shows the bravery necessary to both make peace with and break free from one’s past.”

–Gayle Brandeis, author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (Harper San Francisco), The Book of Dead Birds: A Novel (HarperCollins), Self Storage (Ballantine), Delta Girls (Ballantine) and My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers).

“The Rope Swing offers comfort in those lonely hours when many of us wonder, ‘Is my family really crazy or is it all in my head?’ If you have to ask, it’s real. Candace Kearns Read offers a candid invitation into her upside-down world, and in so doing confirms our own. Read exquisitely expresses the broken promise of motherly love, the redemption of daughterly forgiveness, and the hope of mothering the broken child within us all.”

–Cara Lopez Lee, author of They Only Eat Their Husbands: Love, Travel, and the Power of Running Away (Conundrum Press, 2014)

“I didn’t just read about Candace’s hippie childhood, her life as a Hollywood scriptwriter, and the crazy mother who challenged her every step of the way—I became immersed in her world. The Rope Swing does what all great memoirs do: it tells a unique but thoroughly relatable story.”

–Shari Caudron, author of Who Are You People? A Personal Journey into the Heart of Fanatical Passion in America (Barricade Books, 2006) and Author/Speaker/Coach with The Narrative Group, LLC.

“The Rope Swing is an honest and touching exploration of a complicated mother-daughter relationship. With sensitivity and insight, it shows how the past ripples into the present. None of us can ever completely walk away from our childhoods, nor would we want to. The past shapes the present, and only in an honest accounting can we reject the harmful and celebrate the good.”

–Laila Ibrahim, founder of The Woolsey Children’s School in Berkeley, CA and author of The Yellow Crocus (2010) and Living Right(2016).

“Candace Kearns Read writes about growing up in her family with a sharp eye for the absence and the presence of love and belonging. Her memoir, largely set in California in the 1970’s, is like opening a time capsule to a complex psychological environment. The Rope Swing is a poignant tug on the tethers and tensions between mothers and daughters and is a profound look at when to hold onto family and when it’s time to let go.”

–Elaine Gale, creator of the one-woman show One Good Egg, and former reporter/columnist for The Los Angeles Times and The Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

“Candace allows us to ride along on her rope swing so we can all see how our childhood and family dynamics affect how we view the world. Some simply survive while others like Candace use those challenges to thrive.”

–Erika Armstrong, author of A Chick in the Cockpit: My Life Up in the Air (Behler Publications, 2015)

About Candace:

Candace Kearns Read grew up in Los Angeles. She received her B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from New York University and worked at the talent and literary agencies ICM and WME in Los Angeles for many years as a story analyst. She worked as a personal script reader for Anthony Hopkins, Marlon Brando, director Roger Spottiswoode, Mel Gibson, Nicolas Cage, John Wells Productions, Castle Rock Productions, Village Roadshow Pictures, and countless other actors, agencies, managers and production companies.
She has written many original screenplays, several of which have been optioned by producers and developed with Fox, Disney, and Lifetime. She has also written many screenplays “For Hire.” Her 1998 script Home Games, based on the life of a Chicago Cubs “baseball wife,” was produced by HBO.
Read is the author of the autobiographical screenwriting handbook Shaping True Story into Screenplay. She is frequently hired by nonfiction authors and filmmakers to assist with adaptations of their true stories into books, plays and screenplays.
In 2001, she earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She has taught creative writing, screenwriting, composition, and literature for After School Enrichment programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District, National University, Antioch University, Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Lighthouse Young Writers. She currently teaches creative writing and dramatic writing for Antioch University and Lighthouse Young Writers Program.
She is an award-winning essayist, and her nonfiction has been published in the literary journals Peralta Press and Pudding House Press, online at suite101.com and pubslush.com, girlstrektoo.com, The Manifest-Station, fullgrownpeople.com, and in print magazines such as DiningOut and Elevated Living.

In 2013, Read wrote the screenplay adaptation of the book Smaldone: The Untold Story of An American Crime Family, which has sold over 20,000 copies and is on the bestseller lists in several Colorado bookstores. She is also the co-author of Bogie’s Bike, a memoir by publicist-to-the-stars Bob Palmer. She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Her website is CandaceKearnsRead.com.

Recovery Daily Dose is written by Barbara B. Rollins
and OAStepper, authors of these Eagle Wings Press books.

Whether you fly with eagle wings or huddle beneath them, Eagle Wings Press has the book you need to catch the updraft and soar beyond your wildest dreams.